The Great War: 1898
Knightfall is an Open World Action Role-playing Game developed by DECA UK and published by NINE100 Studios as an NCS Anima 2 launch title. It showcases the next-generation capabilities by creating a massive open world sandbox and high graphical fidelity, utilizing the power of the Anima 2 in conjuction with the ICEngine. Development After the completion of Dark Half 2, the team at DECA UK went on to evaluate possibilities of another Dark Half game. Many ideas were put forward, but due to the departure of lead narrative designers, Christ Kent and Jake Moran, who went on to create Fanatik Games, the team decided that the ideas for another Dark Half game wouldn't fit the series. At that time, the new ICEngine was in its final stages of development at DECA USA. DECA UK was planning on creating a tech demo for an open world game, rendering a large sandbox that utilized seamless rendering, which was promising regarding DECA UK's expertise with open world game design. The demo was put forward to NCS executives in 2018, who approached DECA UK with developing a game for the higher-powered upcoming console, which was in early development at that time. To succesfully realize the project, DECA UK provided feedback regarding the specs of the then in development Anima 2. General *Advanced industrialization due to an alternate timeline where an book artifact was given by Jesus of Nazareth and obtained by the Knights Templar during the Crusades and was used to seize control of the monarchs across Europe. The details of the artifact are classified, but its a sacred object in possession of the French Knighthood. *Third-Person Open World Action Role-Playing Game with melee- and shooter combat. Emphasis on large scale World War I trench warfare mixed with superior parkour movement of the character, Stealth in tighter perimeters and cities and exploration in far-away locations. *The giant overworld includes a large chunk of the middle of Europe, from the western front France over Germany to the eastern front in Russia and Austria-Hungary, the industrial hub of London and surrounding and the Coast of Syria. Major cities include London, Paris, Berlin and Moscow. *James Grey, birth name Gareth Holt, was a bastard son adopted by a wealthy and power significant knight and thus an illegitimate knight, due to him being not born from Knight blood. *Grey is an arranged marriage with Emma le Clerc, the daughter of a powerful french knight, to strenghten the bonds between the english and french knights. This bond is later used for Grey to obtain the location of ancestor and generally recognized as the best knight, Armand Moreau. *The German principalities were in history too minor to be controlled by the European Knighthood, but after the unification of these principalities into an empire, they oppose the other European nations that are controlled by the Knighthood. A war between the Knighthood controlled nations and the non-Knighthood controlled nations becomes the Great War of 1898. *Heavy armored paratroopers in the british army is the Deathstalker Battalion. A german counterpart also exists, who can soak up lots of damage in combat. Members of the unit are mostly highly trained commoners, rather than knights. Eventually, this leads to the revolt of the labourclass in London. *The tomb of Moreau is located beneath a french castle in Syria, which is guarded by hostile traditional knights. Moreau also has an ancient sword in his possession that Grey takes with him. *Weapons include traditional melee weapons for Knights, swords, knives, etc, who value traditional over modern weaponry, which include the (obligatory) tesla gun, noise suppressing rifle, standard automatic weaponry, old semi-automatic weaponry, bayonets and more. *Constant plot element is the struggle of Grey in that he is of false blood and that he is a pre-arranged marriage, while falling in love with another non-knight blood commoner woman, which would mean he will be excluded from the Knighthood. Another element is (in)equality, the superiority of the Knights in contrast to the "dirty" civil class. *Talents are the way of upgrading your character. You level your character up, earning specific tokens to use to upgrade abilities. Abilities have to be trained by performing the latest level ability a certain amount of times before reaching max rank of it, opening the ability to upgrade. You can train abilities in training sessions or in combat, which gives more experience per performance. *Historical significant actions of the Knighthood, all slightly altered: French revolution (Armand Moreau), Reformation of the Catholic Church (Giullio Veneziano da Firenze), Assassination of Franz Ferdinand (Demyan Kuzman). *Father affair with commoner, Lady for now, who conceives son with another commoner, who is abusive of her and the son. Lady dies either due to injury or decease and then father beats commoner father to death or vice versa. Out of guilt, he adopts the infant, Gareth and accepts him into his bloodline. *Russian Knights are experimenting with Tesla-energy weaponized devices, bringing to security of the Knighthood to waver. Grey and his comrades are send to the location and bury it, causing a hastened Tunguska event. *The German empire houses an underground archive of research related to the artifact beneath Berlin. Its existence, whereabouts and uses are heavily researched. It's a downward spiral with branches housing libaries and labs. *The Russian revolution also ignites during the Great War, causing the Russian Knighthood to be severely unreliable and a liability for both the French and British Knighthoods. The British branch eventually decides to betray the Tsar and help the proletariate finish the revolution to reestablish a strong bond between the state and the Knighthood. *In London, the lower class' neighbourhood is a no-go zone unless suggestion of imminent threats lurking in there. Players can only enter with collected intel which points at criminal activity in the area. Penalties are in play once they enter the area without consent and stir up havoc unjustifly. *The artifact, while ambiguous, was used by the Egyptians to succesfully build the pyramids. The artifact fell into Roman hands, but eventually it had became unreadable for the romans, until Jesus reactivated the artifact which caused the people in power, the Romans, to fear an uprising with the help of the artifact. It is said to give luck, fortune and enlightment. *After his mission in Syria, Grey suspects that Moreau's idealogy is still alive and spreading in Europe, pointing at the Red Revolution in Moscow. Fearing that a similar event will happen in London, he speaks out his distrust of the French, who have ties with Moreau and posses the artifact which they, because Grey and his associate don't know what it is or does, might be using it at that very moment. *The end: The belligerents of the Central Powers are defeated, but the Knighthood is on the brink of extinction, with only certain individuals still standing and going into exile. *The Endgame of the story has the British Knighthood corrupted, as well as Paris in the hands of central powers. Grey stealthily infiltrates the city, finds Emma Le Clerc, who says the male knights are locked up in a big prison. He rescues them, except Papa Le Clerc who accepts defeat, and with them start a riot. *With clues from a french grandmaster, Grey goes looking for the artifact in the Parisian catacombs, the valley of the dead kings.There he encounters the remains of it and the Todslaufer leader. *Back in London, the Knighthood headquarters are ravaged by a bomb attack and an assassin stirs up terror in the city. Grey and the other knights hunt for the ones responsible, igniting civil unrest between the aristocrats and the lower class. *During the civil unrest, Grey becomes infatuated by a commoner lady named Lilian or Lily, who has ties to the bombers club. Grey becomes morally twisted during this part, descending into irrational behaviour, affecting his judgement in the war on the mainland. *A Knight becomes antagonistic towards the british knighthood, either due to sympathy towards the civil class, sympathy with the Russian revolution/Moreau or plain going insane, and goes rogue, assisting the bombers in executing an attack and assassinating major figures in London to weaken the knighthood. *Due to alternate course of events, America is never fully conquered and remains a trade post mostly, with the west being for fortune seekers. Pirate activity is still large in the Americas, organized crime in the cities and on the waters are running high-stake businesses. The Knighthood bleeds into the frontier after defeat in Europe (Knightfall: Bloodlines and Empire) *A underground bunker buster kills Laville in the later portion of the story and wounds Grey, who's brought to a makeshift civilian-to-soldier hospital. There, Germans besiege the building and executes medics, volunteers and patients, forcing Grey to flee while wounded. This leads to the Red Cross trials, where Grey serves as prime witness. *Grey becomes a public figure due to the trials and a close relative urges him to not go to the frontline and rather keep a low profile. While initially struggling against it, Grey is later targeted in London by German wehrwolf assassins, secret civilians blend into society, who kill a body double in an alley. *Wehrwolfs are assymetric assassination forces stationed in German-opposing nations. They have veiled themselves as normal civilians or some are English of Germanic descendance who started sympathising with the germans. There name is based of Werewolfs, creatures who appear in daylight, but ferocious beasts when the right time (full moon). *During the formalities in Paris, Grey sits at a table with Laville, who tells him about his history as a soldier in the Ottoman (Research for realistic empires ongoing) – Austria-Hungary war, which marks that Knight empires aren't invincible, foreshadowing the demise of the Knighthood in Europe. *To help traversing large distances in the middle of the European map, Grey will receive a horse from the Order of the Russian Kozaks, infantry existing out of riders who operate in the eastern front, after he helps them out in a battle. *The player can upgrade his weaponry, like the bow to the crossbow, at one of 3 elite vendors, in London, Paris and Moscow respectively. Next to them exist other vendors who sell ammunition and upgrade materials. *Certain higher end upgrades require unique materials that can only be acquired by completing a side quest, story mission or buy it from a rare vendor who roam around/are in a certain place for a certain time. *There are certain status effects akin to RPG concepts, like the Bleed status which causes damage over time and slower reactions, the Burn status that causes DoT and inability to attack, or the Paralysis status which makes enemies immobile for a moment. *The syrian mission requires mostly melee combat, as there are no ammo drops from enemies. That combined with the fact that the player can't return to the mainland unless he has found the seal of the artifact, proving his quest wasn't a waste. *The story spans about 3 years, starting in 1897 and ending in 1901. The Great War officialy erupts in 1898, where the majority of the first act takes place. The endgame takes place in 1901, where the story also ends. *Variation of boss encounters, which war machines requiring different approaches to be taken down. Exemples of war machines are tanks, batteries or zeppelins. There are also high tiered/heavely armored persons being called boss characters, wielding unique offensive capabilities. *During the Red Day sequence, Demyan Kuzman sets up a Tsar loyalist splinter faction, operating from a remote base in Tunguska. They have developed more efficient arc technology, such as an arc module on the gauntlet. *Boss batle 1 versus 1 against Kuzman, who wields a sword and the arc module on the gauntlet. The blast need to be blocked with the sword, which serves as lightningrod and defuses the blast. Characters *James Grey *Papa Grey *Julia Grey *Grey's mentor a.k.a. Old Wolf *"Griffin" Royle *Eagle's Nest Communicator *British Knights *Army Chaps *Deathstalker leader *Emma le Clerc *Papa le Clerc *Henry Laville *Knight Gignac *French Knights *Chap who makes cool guns *Lilian Something *Armand Moreau (Phantom) *Ancient Order of Syria leader *Levantine Hustler *Demyan Kuzman *Kuzman's mentor *Russian Knights *The Russian Kozaks *Giullio Veneziano da Firenze (Phantom) *British prime minister *German chancellor *German scientist *German Todlaufer leader *Vendors in each city *Street rat rival *The Duke in Britain Factions *The Knights Templar **Anglican Knighthood **French Knighthood **Russian Knighthood **Levantine Knighthood **Prussian Knighthood (Exterminated) *The British Army **22nd Regiment **Deathstalker Battalion *The French Army **First Shock Division *The Russian Czar Army **The Royal Kozaks *The German Wehrmacht **Jäger Corps **Todslaufer Battalion Locations Lists major districts, not the travel zones. *London **Whitechapel and Westminster **Greater London *Paris **The Centre **Catacombs ***Valley of the Dead Kings **Versailles *No Man's Land (Western Front) **Town district ***Bombed out theatre ***Street filled with upturned carriages and dead horse (Cover-based combat) **Mansion housing a secret of aristocracy **Mining facilities in Elzas-Lotharingen **Trench Nation **The plains (Todslaufer Landing) *The Countryside *Berlin **The Heart **The Archive *No Man's Land (Eastern Front) *Moscow **Red Square **The Revolt *Syria **Qal'at Valley **Moreau's Castle *Tunguska ---- *Amsterdam Sequences *Clearing out '87 Bombers lair in "..." *Grey's master retires from field duty and passes his duties on to Grey, who has shown his ability to "kill" are better than his ability to "learn". *Go to paris to evaluate the assassination of the Austria-Hungarian emperor. ---- *First strike and creation of Trench Nation. Save the french troops from imminent demise. ---- *Formalities in Paris to discuss with Provinces to let in Elzas-Lotharingen refugees. Meet Laville, commander of the Shock Battalion and acquire an associate, as well as estranging the relationship. *Assault the frontline of Elzas-Lotharing to open a window for the refugees to flee during the german siege. ---- *Red Day Revolution in Moscow *Shut down the Tesla operations in Tunguska *Eliminate Demyan Kuzman, who leads the Russian Loyalist Knights. ---- *Finding Moreau's Legacy in Syria. *The splintering of the Knights. *Deathstalker Rebellion against the aristocrats. *Raiding the Goethe Archives. ---- *Fall of Paris and infiltrating of the city to find Emma Le Clerc. *Infiltrate the Bastille to rescue the french knights. *Spark up riots to escape with the knights to uptown. *Lone wolf mission to the Valley of the Dead Kings and discovery of the state of the artifact. Equipment *Rifles **High Calibre Automatic **Low Calibre Automatic ***Noise Cancelling Prototype **Bolt Action **Semi Automatic *Sidearms **Semi Automatic **Burst Fire **Automatic **Double Barrel **Revolver **Hand Cannon *Shotguns **Lever Action **Double Barrel **Semi Automatic *Turrets **Automatic **Sniper *Projectile **Long Bow **Compound Bow **Crossbow ***Compact version *Exotic **Arc Rifle **Pneumatic Rifle **Phosphorous Rifle ---- *Swords **Long Sword **Duel Sword ***Dual Swords **Machete *CQB **Hatchet **Dagger **Bayonet *Gauntlet **Blade **Crossbow **Hookshot ---- *Grenades **Fragmentation **Gas Canister **Arc Calster **Incendiary *Other **Rope/Chain Dart **Throwing Knife